When you finish a project, there are always two competing feelings. The first is to rush into something else, another project of the same kind. But looking around my desktop, I do seem to have caught up.
The only folder left is to the translation of Eutychius “Annals.” This 10th century Arabic Christian chronicle is one that I turned into English, from the Italian translation by Bartolomeo Pirone, chunk by chunk, on this blog. I remember that Google Translate was giving erratic results for numerals. I always intended to go through it and make sure it was correct, and gather it all up. I ought to do this. I do get a modest number of enquiries about it. I could use ChatGPT as well.
Or I could look at Bar Hebraeus, “Book of the Dynasties”, for which there is an 18th century German translation and nothing else. That would be useful too.
The other feeling you get is lassitude and disinterest. You’re tired. You need a break. Often it is wisest to let the adrenaline dissolve, and just relax a bit.
This morning I had a couple of emails that distracted me nicely from Eutychius.
The first related to a 2019 post on how to download LIDAR datasets for the English coast from a frankly dreadful official site. This attracts a reasonable amount of attention, precisely because everyone is baffled. The email advised me that the detailed instructions no longer worked, because the website had changed. And so it had.
So I’ve spent an hour, going through the website and updating my tutorial. It is still possible to download the datasets, thankfully.
The other was a request for some material about the Mithraeum of Santa Prisca, from a 2010 post. Once I found out what was wanted, it was a simple matter to find it on my disk, in the “Mithras\Santa Prisca” folder, and email it over.
Which leaves me back, to consider what to do next. We’ll see!